Abstract

Science teaching is approached with hesitation by many PreK-8 teachers. This chapter explores the research on attitudes toward science and learning science as well as the perceived science efficacy of elementary pre-service teachers. It also describes a content-based, pedagogically rich life science course for pre-service preK-8 teachers that incorporates active and interactive teaching techniques in lieu of the traditional science methods course. Using evidence from this project and other research studies, the chapter argues for the inclusion and modeling of these approaches when preparing teachers of science and proposes that this non-traditional approach for teaching content-based courses for preparing teachers be considered in place of traditional science methods courses.